The present invention generally relates to the field of plywood manufacturing, and more specifically to an automated core veneer feeder and an automated core veneer layer for manufacturing plywood.
Plywood consists of three basic components, a face sheet, a back sheet, and a core material, also referred to as cross band, disposed in between the face sheet and the back sheet at 90 degrees. In general, plywood is made by manually placing one or more layers of core material in between the face sheet and the back sheet.
In some applications, at least one layer of the core material is made of multiple pieces of veneer that are smaller than the face and back sheet in at least one dimension. Currently in these applications, the smaller pieces of veneer are manually fed onto a conveyor system by a first operator and then are manually taken off of the conveyor and placed on either the face or back sheet by a second operator. The second operator ensures that the veneers pieces are precisely placed with no laps or gaps. This process is not only labor intensive, but it also limits the speed at which the plywood can be manufactured.
Accordingly, an automated core veneer feeder and automated core veneer layer for manufacturing plywood are desired.